Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

How Trump impacts harmful Twitter speech: A case study in three tweets

Brookings – “But what about Trump’s online speech? Just as he targets his opponents in rallies and speeches, he also takes to Twitter to dole out criticism and ad hominem attacks. Here, we examine three recent tweets from the president and whether his tweets have a similarly negative impact on the quality of other online speech. These three tweets offer a case study in how elite speech online can impact the incidence of harmful speech. The tweets in question are not obviously threatening in nature—they fall into a well-documented trend of Trump attacking politicians on Twitter while remaining in-bounds of platforms’ content moderation policies. But that does not mean that they do not impact the overall quality of online discourse. Our findings highlight the challenges platforms face as they define their content moderation guidelines and systems in the lead-up to, and aftermath of, the election…”

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.